IATSE Rallies Against Bravo’s ‘Shahs Of Sunset’ At NBCUniversal HQ

More than 200 union members and their supporters rallied today in a park outside the gates of NBCUniversal in solidarity with striking editors on Bravo’s reality series Shahs Of Sunset. Fourteen of the show’s production and postproduction workers were fired last month after they walked off the job in a strike to obtain a union contract, health benefits and representation by IATSE Editors Guild Local 700.

Federal labor law prohibits the firing of workers engaged in protected union activity, including strikes. When a strike is over, the strikers have to be offered their jobs back. Bravo, however, tried to outflank the law by pushing aside the show’s production company, Ryan Seacrest Productions, and taking control of the show itself. That allowed the cable network to act as if the strikers hadn’t been their employees at all when they walked off the job and therefore was under no obligation to rehire them.

For IATSE, it’s a do-or-die showdown that pits the right of workers to strike against Hollywood’s corporate veil. If federal labor laws can be skirted simply by shuffling the deck and coming up with a new corporate boss to hire replacement workers every time there’s a strike, the union’s ongoing campaign to unionize the reality TV industry could be dealt a devastating blow. To make sure that doesn’t happen, IATSE has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Bravo and Ryan Seacrest Productions of unfair labor practices, including retaliation.

“This fight is bigger than the fight over the Shahs Of Sunset,” IATSE International VP Mike Miller told Deadline. “This is about dignity in the workplace. This is about health care. This is about a worker’s right to organize. This is about basic human dignity.”

Speaker after speaker criticized Bravo for its heavy-handed approach to what had started out as a relatively minor labor dispute: 14 workers on an obscure cable show wanting to be represented by a union. A petition circulating at the rally called on Stephen Burke, President and CEO of Bravo parent NBCUniversal, to “act immediately to reverse its subsidiary’s shameless attempt at union-busting” and to “reinstate the fired Shahs Of Sunset crew and enter into good-faith negotiations with their union.”

Scabby the Rat is you the idiot Bravo producer whose chicken sh*t footage is made into passable chicken salad by none other than an EDITOR

Oh My • on Oct 8, 2014 8:26 am

You give yourself way too much credit. Being an editor is the easiest job in Hollywood pound for pound.

jbelson • on Oct 8, 2014 9:57 am

Not easiest, smartest.

Working in TV • on Oct 8, 2014 10:18 am

Now that it’s on a computer, agreed.

Clinton Wade Steeds • on Oct 8, 2014 5:30 pm

Wow, that is a supernatural level of stupidity. The craft of editing requires a powerful sense of story and storytelling, great visual sensibilities, technical expertise, proficiency with all the tricks and shortcuts that make mismatched or even unrelated footage come together coherently, and a diligence to minor minutia and sweeping themes all at once.

Plenty of people are creative. Plenty of people are technical. To be a good editor, you have to be both–and not just able to switch between both mindsets. You have to be able to see in both mindsets at the same time. That’s a rare ability.

Add to that working long hours and weekends for employers who (in the non-union world, at least) frequently try to weasel out of paying overtime, the uncertainty of freelancing, the sheer amount of required knowledge on video formats and editing platforms and effects, and all the egos an editor has to satisfy while still creating watchable programming, and the job is anything but easy.

By calling editing “easy,” you leave exactly two possibilities. One: You are lying to try to keep hardworking craftspeople from making a better life for themselves and get fair compensation. Two: You are ignorant on this topic, yet you’ve chosen to express an opinion against people being able to fight for fair compensation.

You should rethink things a bit, because neither of these are anything a good person would do.

JPL • on Oct 9, 2014 7:15 am

Story producer is BY FAR the easiest. Let the field team bust their butts to get your story in the can, dump it on the editors lap, wait for them to figure it all out, give a couple notes, take all the credit, go home early while the editor finishes your show.

Go editors! • on Oct 7, 2014 3:34 pm

Turn out was closer to 300: amazing. The guild still needs signatures from any past or present “bravo approved editors”. Contact the the guild for more info.

Just Wondering • on Oct 7, 2014 4:41 pm

Did the editors that went on strike not have the same benefits as the rest of the production/post staff? Were they singled out and treated differently? Or did they just want more (in the form of health benefits) than everyone else?

joestemme • on Oct 7, 2014 11:18 pm

Uh, that’s how negotiations often happen – one department at a time.

JPL • on Oct 9, 2014 7:16 am

Not to mention, the WGA really kicked off this recent string of union organizing by getting (well deserved) deals for producers.

• on Oct 7, 2014 11:34 pm

Some office staff get benefits because they are full-time, not show-dependent, like editors and AEs.

Oh My • on Oct 8, 2014 8:26 am

Anyone? Bueller?

doing what's right • on Oct 8, 2014 9:51 am

No, they just wanted basic health care and retirement benefits. The same things enjoyed by most people working in TV for decades. They realized that they and their families get sick, just the same as the executives and employees at Bravo do that have health coverage. They just want the same treatment and benefits that the crew of the show airing on other stations get. They just realized that while these mega-conglomerates are raking in millions of dollars, they would like to earn some basic benefits. And they also took a stand to make a change so that one day other members of the post team could enjoy those same benefits. If people are gonna have to stay late to do 15 pages of notes on a lock cut 6, this shouldn’t be too much to ask for.

Just Wondering • on Oct 8, 2014 12:05 pm

So they have the same benefits as the production/post staff but went on strike because they want the same benefits as Bravo employees/execs? I am also trying to figure out who the other people in TV (specifically reality) have been enjoying health benefits for decades. Who are those people?

jbelson • on Oct 8, 2014 10:05 pm

They don’t have any benefits, neither does production. They all put in countless hours to make these shows, some of which get the same ratings as scripted shows with triple the budgets, but have to pay out of pocket when their child gets sick. There are not enough people in reality that get any sort of benefits, in production or post. They just want the same treatment that scripted people enjoy. Just because they work in a different genre does not mean they are less talented or deserve less.

JPL • on Oct 9, 2014 7:07 am

Anyone not working in reality TV.

jbelson • on Oct 8, 2014 9:57 am

No, they just wanted basic health benefits. You know, the same kind that most people that work in TV have enjoyed for decades. They realized that their families get sick, the same as Bravo executives who have health coverage. They got a little tired of helping make billions of dollars for a mega-conglomerate while being denied proper representation in the work place. They decided to take a stand so that in the future, other members of the post department will some day enjoy the same benefits. And they got tired of staying late to do 16 pages of notes on a lock cut 6 and not be fairly compensated for it.

Working in TV • on Oct 8, 2014 10:20 am

They had the same benefits as the rest of the production staff (none) but wanted some for themselves. They were not fighting for anyone else.

• on Oct 8, 2014 9:31 pm

It is highly unlikely anyone working on the production received health benefits, and certainly no one was earning a pension. If this show was structured like most reality shows, the editors were probably the highest paid department, with weekly rates equivalent to, or surpassing, other key creatives, like the director of photography. Everyone on a reality production like works freelance on a contract basis with terms decided upon hire, and many essential crew — such as story producers or field producers — work for far less a week than a mediocre editor would accept, with no possibility of collective bargaining on the horizon, and less respect for the creative contribution they make.

JPL • on Oct 9, 2014 7:06 am

Why do you people always have to pit editors against producers and other crew? It makes no sense. I don’t know a single editor that thinks only editors should get health benefits. We ALL should. The networks are taking advantage of all of us to get rich. We should be teaming up, not bickering with each other.

JPL • on Oct 9, 2014 7:12 am

As I mentioned below, this isn’t an “us” vs. “them” thing that many are trying to make it. At least it shouldn’t be. Producers and production crew should have benefits as well. They’re just covered under different unions and have to negotiate separately. Someone has to go first though. And, if you look at the recent wave of reality shops unionizing, it has actually been WGA backed producers that have been leading the charge. MPEG is just finally starting to follow that lead.

Editor with Opinion • on Oct 9, 2014 12:59 am

Producers have it quite rough and should be paid better and unionize as well but the topic here is post-productions’ rights. The sort of crew vs. post tension evident in these comments is palpable on many shows and that’s a damn shame. Producers sometimes resent editors because they are paid more. And editors are working longer hours than ever because the quality of the footage is becoming exponentially compromised by overworked and underpaid crews, and more than ever: totally inexperienced crews. But that’s what happens when production companies compete; who can promise it cheaper means more profit for the networks. “Fix it in post! ” Next time you consider ranting on producers or editors as a whole, remember this environment is a direct result of industry standards designed by network execs. Editors’ “good” money is a pittance of what the profits are, and yes, agreed, same goes for producers. Quit hating and start loving and let’s come together in standing up to the networks so they’ll finally do something about it.

JPL • on Oct 9, 2014 12:36 pm

This is what I was trying to say in comments I made earlier, but you said it much better. I’m always surprised when I hear the producer vs. editor mentality. I’ve always gotten along with the producers I’ve worked with and felt a camaraderie with them. Like we’re in the trenches together. We should all support fair treatment for our peers, no matter their title.

• on Oct 9, 2014 10:20 pm

Thanks JPL! Interestingly your last few posts were not on the site at the time I wrote mine. a And yet they are identical mMust be a case of synchronicity!